Montagu Private Equity backs buy-out of Open International

Livingstone’s Business Services sector team advised the management team of Open International, the parent company of Open GI, Open GI London and PowerPlace, on the management buy-out of the business from the majority shareholders. The buy-out was backed by Montagu Private Equity.

Worcester-based Open International provides outsourced business critical solutions for insurers and brokers. Subsidiary, Open GI, has an estimated 19,000 users of its software and services including insurers, brokers and aggregators, operating across almost 2,000 sites. PowerPlace is an online commercial insurance marketplace, which distributes commercial insurance products electronically via its base of around 1,200 broking firms.

Chris Guillaume, CEO at Open International, commented: “We have continued to build on our strong position in the market over the past few years and we are excited to be driving the group’s next phase of growth, notably in the commercial insurance market where PowerPlace is at the forefront of the move to standardise and transact products online.”

“Livingstone’s support of the management team was instrumental in bringing this transaction to life in an exceptionally short timeframe. Their key role was skilfully modelling potential outcomes of the management deal then fronting the negotiations. This allowed us to short cut the process and achieve the best outcome for management, investor and ultimately the business.”

“Chris Guillaume and his team are the outstanding operators in their space with a long term track record of strong performance and growth. The team, now in combination with Montagu again , are very well placed to take the business to the next stage and significant further expansion.” said James Lever, Partner at Livingstone London.
The transaction will complete subject to approval by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).